Hi, First off - Pretty new to playing bass, been playing I'd say 6 months, got myself an Epiphone EB-3 Cherry with a 40 watt Stagg amp. (Not the best of i know) but yeah.

I can play little bits here and there however, I'm just wondering if anyone can give me any tips on -

How to be more accurate I.E frets and which string to play by that i mean not having to constantly think about it and look down, I know even the best still do but rearly (From what I've seen)

How to increase my speed, slow player :(

Write my own bass lines, had a bash at it myself define but to no prevail.

I've figured these can only besolved by practice however, theremay be an easier way to learn or someone may be able to point me in the right direction.

also is it better for me to have lessons (one on one sessions) or try and teach myself?

The style i play is basically indie stuff...Milburn, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys etc... though wouldn't mind being able to play some The Who with funky little bass solos.


I hope someone can giveme any advice thanks.

Hi, First off - Pretty new to playing bass, been playing I'd say 6 months, got myself an Epiphone EB-3 Cherry with a 40 watt Stagg amp. (Not the best of i know) but yeah.

I can play little bits here and there however, I'm just wondering if anyone can give me any tips on -

1. How to be more accurate I.E frets and which string to play by that i mean not having to constantly think about it and look down, I know even the best still do but rearly (From what I've seen)

2. How to increase my speed, slow player :(

3. Write my own bass lines, had a bash at it myself define but to no prevail.

I've figured these can only besolved by practice however, theremay be an easier way to learn or someone may be able to point me in the right direction.

also is it better for me to have lessons (one on one sessions) or try and teach myself?

The style i play is basically indie stuff...Milburn, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys etc... though wouldn't mind being able to play some The Who with funky little bass solos.


I hope someone can giveme any advice thanks.

Alright I've numbered your questions in the quote^
1. All I can tell you is practice, you'll remember after a good amount of practicing. There's no shame in looking at the fretboard, but you will learn with practice how not to have to be staring at the fretboard.

2. Again, practice, like you said, most of these CAN be solved with practice. For speed, I would recommend taking it slow (kind've ironic I guess) because if you speed up too much before you're ready, you'll become sloppy just for the sake of playing faster. My suggestion is to find some finger exercises, you can search the internet for them or I'm sure someone here can link to some good ones.

3. Writing bass lines? I don't think I'm the write one to answer this one, considering I still have trouble myself. Work on developing your technique more before writing your own stuff! That's all I can tell you, anyway.

Thank you for your quick reply & answers :)
I think i need to really set aside an hour or so each day for me to practise, as now i'll do 10minutes here and there. Thanks.

3. Writing bass lines? I don't think I'm the write one to answer this one, considering I still have trouble myself. Work on developing your technique more before writing your own stuff! That's all I can tell you, anyway.


I'm gonna go ahead and disagree here....The sooner you start writing the sooner you'll start understanding. You need to study a little theory, know your scales, modes, and chords and how they all relate. An instructor is the best way to go about this (really you can learn a lot on your own but you can learn 5X that with a good instructor). There are tons of threads on this stuff here to read as well if you run some searches (I'm sure stumbo will be by shortly to give you a list of reading material that will blow your mind).

I highly recommend http://studybass.com the material there will have you writing bassic lines in no time.

Also, for now I would say learn the pentatonic scale (only 5 notes) put on a drum machine, or drum track, or drum loop from the internet or garage band and try to make a bass line to it while sticking to those 5 notes. Feel the drums let the groove come out, it's almost impossible to play something that sounds wrong in pentatonic as long as your feeling it. Ohh and lastly, simple is good, even if its a 2 note bass line if it sounds good keep it going, you can always expand on it later.

Thank you for correcting me then, I wasn't really sure on the whole writing thing....I still haven't written any basslines officially yet, so I wasn't really fit to comment on that.

I did forget to mention that YES, an instructor is VERY beneficial. Try to get an actual BASS teacher though, around my area they're hard to come by and you usually end up with a guitar player who "teaches bass" but I think it would be best to have a bass player teaching you.

Thank you for correcting me then, I wasn't really sure on the whole writing thing....I still haven't written any basslines officially yet, so I wasn't really fit to comment on that.

Thanks, I meant no offense, I was literally scared of writing for a long while. I just thought it was important the OP not get into that same mindset...writing simple pop/rock bass lines is not nearly as hard as it seems if you trust your own judgment.

Again thank you to both, I'll try the drum machine suggestion.

I tried looking for a bass teacher, but could only find guitar teachers teaching bass...S'pose i could always hunt down Mani of the Stone Roses and make him teach me bass, he does live around the corner in the upper class part :D

Here's some links that may help you out:

Online lessons
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=481548 TB member Dmanlamius has free video lessons
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=490379 Who's the best youtube bass teacher?
http://www.activebass.com/ Tab based lessons by members for members covering all types of bass instruction.
http://www.playbassnow.com with MarlowDK including videos.
http://www.thelibster.com/bass/ beginners' guide/lessons, tech advice,drills, bass sound files,tips,Q&A, links/more .
http://www.musicdojo.com/index.asp Online bass course (5 day free trial)
http://www.cliffengel.com/ Free and paid lessons
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6857992#post6857992 Cliff Engel customer reviews
http://www.cyberfretbass.com/index.php For all bassists


Free Jam tracks
http://www.freejamtracks.com/index.html

Note: 10 minutes of practice a day for 6 months is about 30 hours total.

Now, if you put in 3 hours a day for a year, it'd be 1,095 hours. That's more like it to accomplish what you want to accomplish in a reasonable period of time. With an hour a day for a year, that's 365 hours of practice. After a few hundred hours, you'll see more of the progress that you desire.

Don't give up! Try to put in more time for longer periods. Maybe a couple of hours a day on the weekends.

Good luck! Let us know how it's going.

:D Thanks for the links and the calculations Stumbo, Much appreciated

I would suggest some lessons. Learning to play by ear or by Tabs is ok but, you'll find that with tab unless you know the song, all you're really doing is playing the notes by number. Lessons will give you a good foundation to start, and depending on the teacher will correct some bad habits that will be next to impossible to break years down the road.

Here's some tips for coming up with bass lines from my own experience.

1. Listen intently at the bass lines that are played in the songs you like. Then think about why it works. Does the bass mainly play roots, does it follow the vocals? Or does it harmonize with some other instrument? Which notes follow the melody and which ones are meant as fills or transitions between chords? This will help you understand what works and doesn't work for a song. Listen to a lot of different styles of music as well. It'll help you be more creative rather than just going through the motions for whatever genre you're writing music for.

2. Make up tunes in your head as you go through a normal day. Just hum them or whistle something. Anything. You will be surprised at what you come up with. Most of the time you'll be coming up with a melody. Now that you have a melody, try to think of another phrase that complements it. This may or may not be your "bass line." Heck, the melody that you first hum could be it. I think a lot in terms of melody, and since bass was my first instrument I think kind of backwards, where I come up with the bass part first then see what chords apply to it along with the other stuff.

3. If you're trying to develop a line for an existing song that you or a friend wrote and you have a bunch of ideas that don't seem to work then archive those ideas somehow by recording it and/or notating it. You never know when those "crappy lines" will fit another song perfectly.

4. Don't try to force yourself to come up with lines only when a bass is in front of you. Ideas can come an inopportune times. You just have to use what you can to make them opportune times. For me, coming up with bass lines in my head ain't all that hard. It's trying to put them down on the fret board before I forget it that's the hard part. :) I'm incredibly forgetful and most of my ideas come when I'm away from my bass. I read somewhere that Bela Fleck likes to call his home and leave messages on his answering machine to record his ideas, and I think that's a great idea. I've started to use Braincast (http://braincast.viatalk.com/account/login) for this purpose. Any other such online voicemail program will fit the bill.

Hope that helps a little.

Infernal Affair, I really appreciate that.
In the past I've thought up of bass lines in my head but as you said i cant they put it on the fret board.

Vincent, Thanks also that pretty much what i do now, just look at a tab and play the notes but it's all a bit bleh! :)

Definatly going to find myself a bass teacher in the near future.